he turned out into Piccadilly, the morning after his arrival, with a
vague expectation of changes, of finding great things had happened. But
there were few transformations in Piccadilly--only three or four big red
houses where there had been low black ones--and the brightness of the end
of June peeped through the rusty railings of the Green Park and glittered
in the varnish of the rolling carriages as he had seen it in other, more
cursory Junes. It was a greeting he appreciated; it seemed friendly and
pointed, added to the exhilaration of his finished book, of his having
his own country and the huge oppressive amusing city that suggested
everything, that contained everything, under his hand again. "Stay at
home and do things here--do subjects we can measure," St. George had
said; and now it struck him he should ask nothing better than to stay at
home for ever. Late in the afternoon he took his way to Manchester
Square, looking out for a number he hadn't forgotten. Miss Fancourt,
however, was not at home, so that he turned rather dejectedly from the
door. His movement brought him face to face with a gentleman just
approaching it and recognised on another glance as Miss Fancourt's
father. Paul saluted this personage, and the General returned the
greeting with his customary good manner--a manner so good, however, that
you could never tell whether it meant he placed you. The disappointed
caller felt the impulse to address him; then, hesitating, became both
aware of having no particular remark to make, and convinced that though
the old soldier remembered him he remembered him wrong. He therefore
went his way without computing the irresistible effect his own evident
recognition would have on the General, who never neglected a chance to
gossip. Our young man's face was expressive, and observation seldom let
it pass. He hadn't taken ten steps before he heard himself called after
with a friendly semi-articulate "Er--I beg your pardon!" He turned round
and the General, smiling at him from the porch, said: "Won't you come in?
I won't leave you the advantage of me!" Paul declined to come in, and